Interaction Subcommittee
Santa Barbara County Process Improvement Steering Groups

Sept. 3, 2003 Minutes

Andersen’s Pea Soup, Buellton

 

General information:

 

Subcommittee Chairman Dave Cross called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. He said all meetings would start and end on time, stay focused on the topic at hand, reach decisions by consensus, and encourage frank and open discussions.

 

Meeting Minutes:

 

The minutes from the Aug. 25 meeting were approved as submitted.

 

Mission Statement:

 

The subcommittee considered two different mission statements and decided to continue discussing them at future meetings, but not to make a final decision until after having had substantial time to determine what our specific goals should be.

 

The first version said: The subcommittee will propose policy and procedural changes within six months to transform the Planning and Development Department’s ministerial permitting process. The changes will encompass methodologies to communicate early, clearly and in a user-friendly manner to all potential applicants, to minimize conflict and whenever possible eliminate it, to reduce the time and cost that county staff and the applicant spend getting a permit processed, and possibly to give the applicant a sense of what the likely outcome might be and when.

 

The second version said: The subcommittee will make recommendations to improve the interaction process by educating the staff, informing the public and simplifying the process.

 

Overview of Selected Improvements

 

Subcommittee member Steve Goggia identified selected improvements that the county staff has already determined need to be done. They include reaching out, sharing information and listening, providing incentives for applicants and their agents to begin the ministerial permitting process by first talking with the staff, realistically managing applicant expectations, encouraging mutual respect, and promoting a partnership between the staff, design community and community at-large.

 

Initial goals and actions:

 

The subcommittee discussed the first goals it needed to accomplish and first actions it needed to complete. The topics revolved around building a collaborative, non-adversarial relationship by determining who uses the system, how to discover what they want to accomplish, and how to best communicate with them so they achieve it.

 

The actions are:

·        Getting a definition of what is a ministerial permit, possibly including an explanation of how it differs from a discretionary permit;

·        Developing a list of what projects need only a ministerial permit; and

·        Receiving the minutes from the three other Process Improvement Team subcommittees.

 

The goals are:

·        Identifying who the various users of the system are, both in terms of staff and the public, and identify which strategies are needed to provide the best service to each constituency;

·        Improving the department web site; and

·        Creating a public outreach and education campaign that will help users navigate the system and help the staff guide them.

 

Subcommittee groups were formed to address each goal. Steve Goggia, Susette Naylor, Dan Nemeche and Kim Probert will identify the users and service strategies. Susan Warnstrom, Salud Carbajal and Bernie Stableford will focus on the web site. Tom Smith, Alice Howe and Jerry Bunin will examine public education.

 

All three working groups are supposed to make a preliminary report at the next meeting, 5:30 p.m. Sept. 17, at a location to be determined.

 

Adjourned:

 

The meeting adjourned at 6:18 p.m.